Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” Music Video Is an Ode to Her Marching Band Roots

After years of bopping to the song, Lizzo has unveiled a brand-new music video for 2016's “Good as Hell,” and it pays homage to her marching band roots.

On December 9, Lizzo released the accompanying music video for the track, which originally came out as part of her Coconut Oil EP in 2016 (and had a different music video that year). To further illustrate the fan-favorite bop, the Detroit-born singer took a page straight out of her own yearbook.

In the almost four-minute new video, we follow the real stories of various Black students at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Southern University as they prepare for homecoming week. Featuring SU’s Human Jukebox marching band and Fabulous Dancing Dolls, Lizzo honors the tradition of marching bands in Black culture, and especially in HBCUs like Southern University. Lizzo isn't the only person to reference marching bands in her work — who can forget Beyoncé and her momentous Coachella performance? — but Lizzo apparently also drew from her own experiences in marching band.

“I was in marching band from eighth grade all the way up until college — the Cougar marching band at University of Houston,” Lizzo told NPR in 2016. “I was a piccolo player. I was the baddest piccolo in the land, 'cause I got big lungs. And I was really determined. I rented the flute, and I just started listening to James Galway and songs on the radio, really trying to sound good and be the best.”

Throughout the various situations depicted in the feel-good video, we find Lizzo wearing her own twist on SU's band uniform, serving as conductor and confidant for the students. She also dances through the practice room, the bleachers, the field, and even her a custom “Lizzo” school bus — scenes which, not-so-coincidentally, seem to mimic Lizzo’s IRL experiences. “There was a lot of freestyling on the bus,” the singer told NPR. “There was a lot of freestyling in the cafeteria, and there was a lot of freestyling on the radio.”